Heart's Tribulations
by Hylander McLeod
Summary: Having Reunited his sister with her second love Yukishiro Enishi struggles to find his own place in the world, dealing with feelings both foreign and familiar. AU. Potentially OOC
1. what's in a name

Just to Clear things up I intended to put this up later but the now prequel in which Kenshin and Tomoe reunite is taking longer than I thought it would. It may no longer be just a one shot.

I'm also simultaneously working on Constellations which is a series of my own spin offs on the events during and before the Forest of Barriers (manga verse) and the OVA Trust and Betrayal

disclaimer- Rurouni Kenshin belongs to Watsuki. I simply enjoy reading it.

summary- Yukishiro Enishi contemplates on the many things that is his sister's husband

* * *

To say Yukishiro Enshi was displeased was an understatement. A rather large understatement.

from the corner of his eyes he observed his sister, _now Himura_ Tomoe he reminded himself, busy herself with the motherly duties of getting her two year old daughter to fall asleep. A task that, as of right now, was proving difficult.

Himura. Three years ago the name sounded like poison to him. Poison that robbed his sister of all she had and the future she wanted.

Now that same name brought a indescribable warmth to his sister's heart.

Within a week of finding Himura, _her_ Kenshin as she would sometimes call him, once more the two had been married; now officially husband and wife. The next few days were calm and peaceful. It was not too long after that the arguments had begun.

Himura once again had requested they return to Edo, away from the city filled with chaos and violence. Tomoe of course, refused, despite her husband's persistence, saying she would not return without her full family. And so here they were, hidden away once again, waiting and hoping, for him to return.

He had stayed with them at Himura's request, as the redhead could not split in his duties to his family and his cause to the Choshu. Naturally he had stayed to be near his sister and not because her husband had ….. he didn't want to think about it.

Himura Kenshin, or Shinta, as his sister had told him was the true name her husband, and his accursed ideals.

What sort of man ignores his family when they need him most?

She had not told him more that day, claiming her husband's past was his own and he would share it with them when he was ready.

He did not argue with her on the matter, instead silently berating Himura for his decisions.

Though Kenshin could not get away from the war for long he was present at the birth of his daughter. He had spent a full day simply watch his wife as she slept, a smile on his face. Enishi's own however was adorned with a scowl.

The very next day though the young man had returned to the war. Tomoe despite, being saddened, was understanding. He was not.

It's been over two years since then. More than Two years since Kenshin's last visit.

Enishi had offered, when they had left Kyoto, to make trips back and forth and bear messages but both Himura and Tomoe said no. Instead, Tomoe had settled for Kenshin's top leaving him her purple shawl in exchange.

He, of course, stayed to watch over them in Kenshin's absence. His promise to Kenshin: a promise between men.

Kenshin. Himura Kenshin. Shinta. Battousai.

Other than names, Enishi realized he knew next to nothing of his sister's husband. She had often times told him there was more to the man, than the assassin persona, the cruelest of killers as portrayed by the Shogunate. She herself had been shocked to learn that Himura Battousai, the so-called feared demon of Kyoto had been nothing more than a child.

_A Child._ He scoffed. If Himura truly had been a child, he most certainly did not see it. Or was it Battousai that he had seen all that time, not even giving a thought to Himura's existence?

Of all things that redhead was or could be, he was definitely, a hard man to read.

When the last of the ninja lay dead, overpowered by his murderous blade, and he made his way slowly to Tomoe, Enishi's first thought was the redhead would kill her. Instead he forced the katana into her own hand and, with a swift pull, added yet one more scar on his body, one directly over his heart, telling them to _return to the cottage_ where they _should be safe. _

Upon Tomoe's request to have her treat his wounds, he showed them a sad smile asking whether his death were to be such a tragedy.

He did not speak of the plot at Katsura's arrival but rather a cleverly bought ruse that they_ had been found_ and he _was concerned more might show_. Leaving them the next day, taking less than a day's worth of provisions … from his words and his actions it was like he hated himself most all. How can such a person exist, especially one who was a killer?

"Enishi?"

His sister's voice snapped him back into reality. She kneeled down by his side, wrapping a blanket around him. "It's late. You shouldn't be up." she chastised.

"I gave my word to Himura." He replied stubbornly. _If that man had stayed with sister, as a husband should ….._

Not knowing what else to do Tomoe hugged her younger brother. "He will come back Enishi. I know he will." _ what else could say?_

"You should sleep neesan. I'll watch over you two for a while."

Tomoe nodded and went to her futon, giving one last smile as she did.

Leaning back against the wall, Enishi once again returned his musings; his newest attempt at staying awake. It was going to be another long night.

* * *

His eyes snapped open. He had dozed off. And with Tomoe and her daughter, his niece, both fast asleep no less. If something had happened Kenshin would-

Wait. Kenshin.

Glancing back to the opposite corner of the small room he noticed the redhead, sitting on the floor, with both arms wrapped protectively around Tomoe, and her resting against him.

His brother-in-law silently pressed a finger against his own lips a sign to keep quiet .

_Too late _ he mouthed.

Kenshin looked at him questioningly. If there were no sleepers around Enishi might have laughed. Instead he chose to forgo laughter, and directed his head at the object of his amusement. Kenshin looked down to see a pair of brown eyes looking at him.

"Kenshin … anata?" Tomoe asked disbelieving, as if this a dream.

Kenshin placed a quick kiss on her lips. "I'm back Tomoe, this time for good. I won't leave you again. Ever."

The smile on his wife's faced matched the one she had given when he asked her to marry him. He returned the smile with his own. Both fell asleep almost instantly Kenshin in a sitting position and Tomoe leaning against him.

Unbeknownst to the happy couple Enishi, for his reasons, had a smile on his face as well

* * *

If you watch the OVA closely there's a scene in which Tomoe slips her robe off her shoulders. In that instance you could see the sides of one of her breasts. Also because of Kenshin's height, or lack thereof (or based on their positions) his face was level with her bosom. So that's where I got the idea of the child.

As for Enishi in general, I feel there wasn't really much to his character than an intense hatred of Kenshin and a strong sense of devotion to and love for his sister. Since there was no other emotional display and this AU wise I figured he would try to understand Kenshin if only for his sister's sake. (should be made more clear in the prequel)

translations (for those who don't know)

neesan – older sister

anata- dear or beloved (as said by a woman to her husband)


	2. fear factor

disclaimer- you already know.

summary- Enishi finds amusement in Kenshin's strange fears and ponders on the type of future Himura and Tomoe would be faced with while residing in Tokyo.

* * *

Yukishiro Enishi had been angry. He had been upset. He had been happy. He had even been displeased.

Over the past five years he had been all of these things.

Not once in that time had he been _amused_

The look on his face when Tomoe presented Kenshin to their father, having addressed the man as her husband, had been one thing. The look a mere ten seconds afterwards had been quite another.

He had yet to fully know his sister's husband despite living with them for almost nine months, as neither the man nor his sister had wanted to travel to Tokyo with an infant, so they had waited until Aiko had turned three, and he refused to return home without his sister.

When Kenshin slowly looked up, bring his own violet eyes, level with Yukishiro's, muttering a quiet hello, before looking back down, it took all his self control not to burst out in laughter.

_The legendary Battousai afraid? _

This was certainly unexpected.

Then again this was no longer Battousai. Battousai had died back at Toba Fushimi, as Himura and Tomoe had both often said.

Battousai was a front, a persona buried deep in the bowls of Himura's sub-consciousness, out of necessity more than anything. Battousai was an emotionless shell, a vessel designed to harbor the guilt of taking the lives of so many and the even more sickening guilt of indifference towards the victims. Designed out of self preservation; what the child couldn't endure Battousai did.

Battousai wasn't afraid. Himura Kenshin was.

Afraid of being an unwelcome guest, because of his actions and the lives he had taken, especially those of this area. The Kiyosato family were had been on good terms with his, but would they still be now, knowing the murderer of their son, was now here in this city, in with house and most importantly married to the one their son could have married had time ran a different course instead of the one it had taken? And what if more trouble would follow him, once the Meiji heard word of his residence here? Would he be forced into more conflicts, from allies or foes, conflicts he'd sought to avoid especially now?

_Idiot _. His first fears would not be for himself but the ones around him. It may sound ridiculous coming from someone else but that's just like Himura Kenshin.

As for Shinta …

He'd doubted that Shinta ever had room for fear, his mind filled with such emptiness.

He'd stayed at inn watching Aiko, as Himura had said what he wish to share with Tomoe was not meant for child's eyes and ears, especially one so young. They had returned nearly four hours later, longer than any of them had anticipated. His sister's eyes had revealed evidence she had been crying while Himura's had shined with a deep sadness he could not quite understand

Tomoe had later told him the story, though being quite sketchy upon the full details, of her husband's life's story. He listened patiently, his expression shifting between shock and surprise and back once again, never once asking a question or interrupting her.

_So that had been the reason for the tears _he thought. She had almost done so again telling the story, much less hearing a more detailed account firsthand.

In those short twenty minutes or so, he'd realized there's more to the man than there could be possible. He himself had not known his birth mother, yet had Tomoe to fill that void.

Himura however ….

Here was a child who had lost his whole world, even his own identity as a second and third were bestowed upon, both by people he would neither had known nor met had circumstances been different. Himura Kenshin was attributed as a man of 19, contributions from both years and time Yet somewhere between Himura Kenshin and Shinta those unlived years remained lost, unsalvageable. He could easily be Tomoe's child as well as her husband

Was he so blinded by hatred, seeing only the killer, the first time the met?

Maybe someday Himura would show him that same burial ground he had shown sister that day.

She had also told him, it was then that Kenshin's master had shown up as well.

He immediately decided he did not like _this _Hiko Seijuro one bit, as the current inheritor of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu appeared on the scene just as Kenshin finished telling his tale. _The nerve of that man acting like he knew everything and the rest knew nothing. _

Focusing once again on the present, he thought of his sister.

What would life for her be like? How would her first fiancé's family and others look upon her in her choice of husband? Would they care she was happy, that Kenshin had made her happy, or would they whisper amongst each other condemning her without understand in scorned judgment?

And yet hadn't he been just that, stubbornly refusing to return home when Tomoe had told him, hating the man even harder and even harder wanting his death?

Then again had he not followed Tomoe, not found her in Otsu, he might truly have lost his sister. Or he would not be understanding as well.

_Maybe it won't be as bad after all _he thought a smile, once again, on his face

For once he was hopeful.

* * *

In the manga Kenshin had not told anyone of his past (i. e. his early years before the revolution). Though in the OVA Reflections Kaoru whispers his real name so I figure he would have told Kaoru eventually. Seeing as how Tomoe had been his first love I decided he might be more open a bit sooner.

As for why I chose Aiko for the name of the daughter?

I looked up on the internet meanings of Japanese names. Aiko (one that is fit or girl or boy according to the information) means love child. Kenshin and Tomoe had fallen in love on the last night they had lived together in Otsu. Here Tomoe survives. The prequel has more explanation but their daughter is what had saved their love, hence the name.


	3. This Strange Feeling

disclaimer- as stated in the first chapter

summary- Yukishiro Enishi deals with strange feelings and makes a decision

* * *

Yukishiro Enishi was not displeased.

No, he certainly wasn't.

He had been displeased when Kenshin choose to take part in the revolution rather than remain at Tomoe's side. And although Tomoe later told him the reasons, while he did accept it, he was displeased nonetheless. He had been displeased when he fell asleep while on guard duty, while he should have been watching over Tomoe and her daughter. Fortunately Kenshin had come home from the war while he did so, thus they were both safe, yet he still cursed himself for doing so.

He had been displeased when Kiyosato's family looked at Tomoe in disgrace and at Kenshin in anger. _Only he could do something like that._

He had been displeased when the neighbors spoke ill of his sister behind her back condemning her for marrying her fiancé's killer.

He had been displeased when Tomoe and Kenshin opted to leave Tokyo and settle elsewhere as simple farmers.

He had been displeased. _Had._

This time he knew not what it was.

It wasn't Himura that stirred this new feeling. It wasn't his sister or his family, and it certainly wasn't the single-minded gossipers that, he thought (and secretly blamed), had caused his sister's departure.

Now the reason behind his strange emotions was one Kamiya Kaoru, the daughter of the master of Kasshin Ryu. He knew not what make of the strange girl, who he had quite briefly known, for some time and yet at the same time not known her at all.

He did not why he gave thought to one so young. Add to that his first thoughts of her, utter annoyance, and it seems doubly stupid he were to spend time and mind on the matter. The girl, child really- barely 10 at the time, had often watched as and he the other students trained under the man's tutelage, mimicking their moves when no one was watching. _Or so she thought_. If anything was wrong with that school, that girl's presence was one. Even if the style only did teach use of the shinai and bokken, a dojo is no place for a small girl.

He had seen her there when he first enrolled at the school, her small form behind the slightly ajar shoji door, eyes peeking out. He of course paid her no heed, at the time, interested instead on the dojo and a chance to get stronger. Having been rather eager to do so as, he had first asked Himura to instruct him in the ways, and when the man had refused, for reasons Enishi himself could not fathom, the path of Kasshin Ryu was the lone choice remaining.

Kashin Ryu- the sword that brings life. It's similarity to Himura's own Hitten-Mitsurugi Ryu, one that was meant to protect those in peril, was what appealed to Enishi.

Even so it had been not been an easy task to convince the master to take him as one of his students. His age at the time combined with his total lack of experience in any form of kenjitsu would have made it impossible. Or so Kamiya Koshijiro had stated.

Enishi glared at the man, having heard that. Himura, of course, had convinced the man to allow him entry. _Leave it to that man to accomplish such_. His mind drifted back to the days that followed their return to Edo, now called Tokyo, and the growing time between Himura's kenjitsu practices, which grew less and less frequent as the months rolled along. He knew not why the reason for Himura's action, be it the guilt for his hitokiri days or his attention drawn more to Tomoe and Aiko, but nonetheless Enishi had begun to worry. Worry that Himura's sanity was fading. Yet while Himura's fate was not his primary concern, Tomoe's was. Seeing as how Himura may falter in protecting his own wife, a promise that Himura had himself made on that fateful day, Enishi resolved that if Himura was unable to do so, he would instead.

And so came the days, the travels to the Kamiya dojo and routine training with several others, most of the students far younger than him, especially _her, _when the time came. He had remembered seeing the girl in the company of himself and the others on that particular day. No sooner then he mentioned her tardiness for waxing the floors that Kamiya Koshijiro had made public the entry of a new pupil, Kamiya Kaoru. That remark was then added with shinai to the right part of his ribcage.

His original thoughts rose to the surface, that girls should not wield weapons, several times bringing Himura and Tomoe into example. The girl was nonetheless persistent, and skilled he begrudgingly had to admit, having surpassed many others as he himself did years before.

Enishis shook his head. Here he was trying to reason to cause of his thoughts on the girl, and the reminiscence on past times had instead done nothing but worsen the problem. Whatever puzzle caused his mind to be plagued with such thought, this was not the method to solve.

_A problem for another day he thought. _

Putting thoughts of the young girl aside he glanced at the calendar.

It had been to long

_Perhaps it's time I visit neesan again. _

Having said goodbye to his father, packed some provisions and money he set course for the Kamiya dojo. He still had to tell one other about his trip

* * *

Boy it feels good to be writing again. Since in this series Tomoe is still alive, Kenshin had never grown close with Kaoru. As for why I chose Enishi … there just weren't that many choices left.

For my few and far between loyal followers, I'm hoping to get to put up another one-shot for my Constellations series by the end of the month.. As for the prequel to this part, I've been having troubles trying to keep it one person's perspective. But I hope to have it up before the spring.


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